Much of the war against Israel is fought in the media and through deceptive “Non-Governmental Organizations” which issue endless distorted reports against Israel.
There hardly is any pretense of objectivity anymore — there is an attempt to tie Israel’s hands when dealing with groups like Hamas and Hezbollah which strategically use civilians as shields.
The Media War is a major part of my first Israeli novel, Israel Strikes:
‘Ladies and gentlemen, I want to be clear. Your job is just as important as the one being performed by our brave pilots. You are our international vanguard. It is your duty to take to the airwaves, all airwaves, and deliver our message to the world. That message is simple. Israel is a pluralistic democracy acting in self-defense against a soon to be nuclear armed regime that has pledged our destruction. You must be candid, you must be forthright, you must take whatever verbal abuse is hurled at you with good cheer, and you must deliver the facts, no matter what.’
She paused and made eye contact with the assembled men and women. Her eyes fell first to their chief press officer, Colonel Avigdor Zev. He spoke English with a British accent and Arabic like a native of Baghdad; his parents fled Iraq in the 1950s. He would deal almost exclusively with news networks in Great Britain, as well as Canada, Australia, and other commonwealth nations. Next her eyes fell upon a pair of lieutenants, a young man and young woman. The young man played basketball in the Israeli league, while the young woman had done some modeling in Israel before becoming a helicopter pilot. Both had lived and travelled extensively in the United States. They would go on American networks like MTV and the Daily Show as a young duo to tell American kids what Israel was about. Next she came to a 40ish tank commander who had earned a scar across his face in Lebanon, and after that had served in Gaza. The rest of that face was smooth and chiseled, a shock of salt and pepper hair was atop his head. It was calculated, and the Prime Minister saw it herself, that he would appeal to Western women. Next came a tall, slender black woman who had been evacuated from Ethiopia in the late 90s; she would appear on television in Africa. Then she came to Major Romi Ben Joseph, an Arabic-speaking medical doctor. To him fell the difficult task, and Eitan thought, unenviable duty, of taking to the airwaves of al-Jazeera, among other Arab language networks.
There follow several scenes where Israel PR men get the better of Islamic Imams and terrorist flaks.
I wonder if its worth it.
Outside of the English Speaking world (except for Britain), Israel is a pariah. Americans, Aussies, even Canadians are staunch supporters of the Jewish State.
Why do the Israelis put up with it all? They will go to herculean efforts to avoid civilian casualties while Hamas and Hezbollah exert similar efforts to make sure their own people get killed. And still the Israelis get blamed.
I lost faith in the UN in the 1990s when they couldn't stop the Serbian destruction of Bosnia and Croatia. The Serbians shelled Sarajevo with impunity and all the UN and the west could do was wag a finger, tisk tisk.
Why shouldn't the Israelis do the same?
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